In Ilkorin, it seems that [h] (which was the value assumed by primitive ʒ = [ɣ] before voiceless consonants) vanished with compensatory lengthening of the preceding vowel. The two examples of this development are very similar: ᴹ✶wahtē > *(g)wāte > Ilk. gôd and ᴹ✶wahtā- > *(g)wāta- > Ilk. góda- (Ety/WAƷ). Based on these examples, this change must have occurred before [ā] became [ō]. Helge Fauskanger also noted this development (AL-Ilkorin/gôd, gôda-).

This development is described in some of Tolkien’s late notes on the development of Beleriandic [Ilkorin] ʒ and ñ, where he stated that “ʒt > ´t > ´d” (PE18/104). Those same notes indicate similar changes could occur in other circumstances (ʒm > ´m), and he said that as a general rule “medially ʒ, g fell together in ʒ (gh) or vocalic derivatives of this”. There are, however, no other attested examples of the vocalization of primitive [ɣ] or [h].